Arctic Justice

On Trial for Murder, Pond Inlet, 1923

"Arctic Justice recounts a critical episode in how Canada came to control its High Arctic. In 1922 a mad trapper threatened to kill the sled dogs of a group of Baffin Island Inuit and, following the Inuit customary law that individuals who endanger the community must be killed, be was executed. Nuqallaq, an Inuk, killed Robert Janes, a white man, and Canadian authorities made the unprecedented decision to put him and two accomplices on trial for murder, leading to the establishment of Canadian law enforcement in the North. Shelagh Grant shows that Canada's action was motivated more by international political concerns for establishing sovereignty over the Arctic than by the pursuit of justice."--Jacket.